


Tale as Old as Time

by nikkiRA



Series: Femslash Fairy Tales [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Beauty and the Beast AU, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-22
Updated: 2015-09-22
Packaged: 2018-04-22 23:07:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4854083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nikkiRA/pseuds/nikkiRA
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Annabeth never paid much attention to the rumours about the Beast who lived in the old castle - that is until she has to meet it in order to protect her father.</p>
<p>Beauty and the Beast AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tale as Old as Time

**Author's Note:**

> okay so i say Beauty and the Beast AU but what i mean is there is a book called Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue that rewrites fairy tales but makes them women centric, whether it be friendship, motherly affection, or romantic relationships. So this story is based on her telling of Beauty and the Beast

High up in the mountains, there is a castle. Rumour has it that in the castle, there lives a hideous beast. Some say it is the princess, living in seclusion after murdering her family; others say it is the cursed monster who killed the royal family. No one has investigated, because the story is better when it not backed up by fact.

Annabeth does not pay much attention to this story. She has more important things to deal with.

That is until her father comes home from a long journey.

Annabeth ran to him as soon as she caught sight of his carriage through the window. They had assumed him to be dead. She opens the door for him and hugs him furiously.

“Oh, Annabeth,” are the first words he says to her. “What have you done?”

The story is this: he was overrun by robbers in the mountains and was left to die. When he awoke again he was in the castle high up in the mountains, being nursed back to health by the infamous Beast. They wore a hooded cloak and a mask, and it was impossible to distinguish any kind of feature. They spoke in whispers, as if they did not want to be heard. Mr. Chase, although terrified, had been indebted to the Beast, and had asked what they wanted in return. Their answer was odd:

“The first thing you lay eyes on when you get home.”

He had quickly agreed, assuming the first thing would be some object – a pair of shoes, or an umbrella.

But it had been Annabeth.

She listens to the story in horror. “They will come looking for me,” her father bemoans.

So Annabeth goes. There was no other option. She takes one of the horses and leaves for the castle, unsure what she will find there.

What she finds, after a hard days ride, is a hooded figure who meets her at the door.

“I am the first thing my father laid eyes on,” she says bravely. “I am Annabeth Chase.”

The Beast studies her before nodding once and walking away. Annabeth doesn’t know if she is supposed to follow until the Beast turns back. They raise an arm; their hand is gloved.

“Come.” Annabeth has to strain to hear them. The voice is quiet, but sounds vaguely masculine. She surveys the figure – despite the cloak she can tell that they are tall, and they look strong. Annabeth isn’t sure if this is true or if she’s just assuming they are strong because that is the impression they give, but she decides that, at the very least, the Beast is human. A man, probably.

She follows him through the empty castle until they reach a very large bedroom.

“You will stay here.”

She takes it in with wide eyes. “This was one of the princesses’ rooms,” she says. She turns back to the Beast. “What happened to the princesses? To Princess Hylla? Or Princess Reyna? What happened to Princess Reyna?” Because she knows from the story that Princess Reyna was the last of the royal family to be seen.

He studies her – or at least she thinks he does. She can’t see him beneath the hood and the mask, but she can feel his gaze.

“She does not exist anymore.”

“Dead?”

“She does not exist anymore.”

“What does that mean?”

“Dinner is at seven,” the Beast says, before stalking away.

After a few days Annabeth feels confident in the knowledge that the Beast is probably not going to kill her. She thinks he might just be lonely, because he follows her around, but not in any menacing or threatening way. He wakes her each morning for breakfast, and then sits with her in the library, which is inevitably where she ends up. The library is huge, more books than Annabeth even knew existed. He watches her as she reads in silence.

Then one day the Beast says, “Read aloud.”

Annabeth looks up in surprise. “Do you not know how to read?”

“That’s not important.”

“I could teach you how to read.”

“I know how to read,” the Beast says firmly.

So Annabeth reads aloud, and the Beast leans back and lets the words wash over him. Annabeth can’t see his face, but she gets the feeling this is the most content he has been in a very long time.

After a few more days Annabeth thinks that she has a bit more leeway, and so works up the courage to say, “Everyone says you killed the royal family.”

The Beast makes a noise in his throat that Annabeth thinks might be laughter. “And what do you think?”

“I don’t know. I try not to form opinions on gossip. You don’t seem very murderous to me.”

“You are very smart, Annabeth Chase.”

It is the first time he’s said her name. It sends a chill through her.

“What happened to the royal family?”

“They are gone.”

“Gone where?”

“Just gone.” His voice is sharper, and the whisper that he normally speaks in breaks; his voice is much higher than she would have thought.

“Who are you?”

“You ask a lot of questions.”

Annabeth doesn’t say anything to this, just continues to stare. Finally the Beast speaks again.

“I am none of your concern.”

* * *

Eventually she works up the courage to ask what she’s been thinking about.

“I would like to go home for a few days. Just to see my father. To let him know I am okay.”

He studies her.

“Will you come back?”

She nods. She wonders if he knows she’s not being entirely truthful.

But why should she come back? Stuck in isolation with only a strange being, who may or may not be human, who barely speaks to her. Why would she come back?

“What will you tell him?”

“That the man who took me is not unkind,” which, she reflects, is true. It could be much worse.

But that doesn’t mean she wants to stay.

“Annabeth,” the Beast says before she leaves. “You should know that I am not a man.”

Annabeth thinks of trolls. Of ogres. Of horrible creatures that live deep in the forests.

Then she rides away.

When she gets home her father stares at her with wide eyes while her step-mother bursts into tears. Her family wraps her in their arms and her father asks her, tearfully, “How did you get away?”

She tells the truth: “I asked.”

* * *

She tells them the story, and they listen intently. Even her step-brothers, who normally can’t sit still for anything, listen to her tale.

“Won’t he come looking for you?” Her father asks. But Annabeth has a very funny feeling that he will not.

“I’m sorry, Annabeth,” her father says. She hugs him tightly; she is so very glad to be home.

* * *

“Dad? What do you know about the Princess who used to live in the castle?”

Her father thinks. “There used to be a whole family who lived in that castle. The King and Queen and two daughters. But it was… strange. They were a very private family. They didn’t pay much attention to the land they governed. So it took a while for people to notice that the Queen had gone. No one knew where. There were rumours that the King had murdered her, but those were started more from hatred than any solid evidence. And then the King disappeared, leaving just his two daughters. Eventually the Princess Hylla was gone, too. The staff all left, leaving Princess Reyna alone. A lot of people thought she had done it. Then one day, two or three young men went up to the castle, as a joke, a dare, expecting to find either the princess, living as a recluse, or an empty castle. What they found was a hooded figure, who issued them a warning. They say it carried a huge sword. They fled screaming. It is… assumed that the monster had killed off the royal family one by one.”

“You sound skeptical.”

As usual, her father thinks before he says anything. “I used to believe it. But the thing that rescued me – whether it be man, woman, or beast – did not seem much like a cold blooded killer. The things you tell me confirm this. The Beast could have done a number of things. Could have let me die; could have killed me themselves. Could have held me captive. Could have done the same to you. Instead they let me go, with a promise I didn’t have to fulfill. Let you go, with the same ease. I don’t know what’s in that castle, but I don’t think it’s what killed the royal family, if that is what happened.”

Annabeth considers this. It almost makes her feel bad about lying.

“Don’t think too hard about it, Annabeth. You’re home now.”

* * *

That night in bed Annabeth is trying to sleep, but she keeps running over what her father had said. She keeps coming back to one very specific thing:  _whether it be man, woman, or beast._

And eventually things start falling into place.

She thinks about what her father had said: leaving Princess Reyna alone. She thinks about the Beast, when Annabeth had asked about the princess. _She does not exist anymore._ Not that she was dead. That she no longer existed.

She remembers the way the Beast said _I know how to read._ She remembers the voice, far different than what she imagined. Far more… feminine. And then, finally, she hears their parting words – _you should know that I am not a man._

She was so stupid.

She scribbles a note to her family – _I’m going back. Long story. I’m okay. See you soon._

Then she leaves.

* * *

It’s raining, which Annabeth finds a bit much. She knocks on the big door of the castle and waits.

When it opens Annabeth takes in the figure. Hooded cloak, same mask, but they are barely taller than her – how could she miss that? The way they carried themselves and the rumours about a terrible beast had made it seem as though the figure in front of her had been monstrously tall. But they weren’t. They were human sized. Girl sized.

Princess sized.

“You’re Princess Reyna,” Annabeth says.

For a few tense moments they stare at each other. Then gloved hands come up and remove the mask, dropping it unceremoniously on the ground.

And then the hood is lowered.

The princess is pretty, with long brown hair worn in a braid. Her eyes are wary.

“Come in, then,” she says, in a normal voice. Annabeth understands why she whispered – it was just another way of hiding her identity.

The princess leads her to the dining room, and Annabeth realizes she interrupted dinner. Reyna sits in front of her plate but does not eat.

“I didn’t think you were coming back,” she says. Annabeth feels guilty when she thinks about the princess living all alone in this big empty castle.

“I wasn’t going to,” she says truthfully. “But then I figured out who you were.”

Reyna purses her lips as if she isn’t very happy about this.

“I suppose you want to know why I was hiding.”

Annabeth is dying to know what could possess a princess to spend years masquerading as a horrible beast, but she doesn’t want to push her luck. It’s probably a touchy subject.

“If you’d like,” she eventually says. The princess sighs.

“It started when my mother left. She wasn’t happy with my father. She wanted to be free of life as royalty. My mother was not the type of person who enjoyed sitting still. She wanted to be out doing things you couldn’t do as a queen. So she left. My father kept this quiet for as long as he possibly could – he was embarrassed. But word got out. Gossip spreads like wildfire. My father let the rumours spread because, in his mind, he would rather there be rumours about a possible murder than the knowledge that he hadn’t satisfied the queen.

“Once my mother left, my father started going mad. He grew paranoid, both that we were going to leave and that the people would find out the truth about my mother. On very bad days, he was certain we were going to tell everyone what happened. On those days he would lock us in our rooms and wouldn’t even let us out for dinner. He fired most of the staff, keeping only a small amount so that he could keep an eye on them. The ones he let go were threatened that if they spread rumours – and by rumours he meant the truth – they would be painfully tortured and executed.

“One day he was feeling particularly paranoid and violent and Hylla fought back. She said she wasn’t going to keep hiding. So he attacked her.”

Reyna’s voice is calm, but there is something in her eyes that she seems to be fighting to control.

“He knocked her unconscious. I didn’t know if she was dead or not. So I killed him. Stuck a sword through him.”

Annabeth hadn’t been expecting that. All the rumours that Reyna had killed her family – her father had said they were just rumours.

But, she thinks, it’s not exactly like she had any other choice.

“When Hylla woke up she saw what I had done and took control. We buried my father secretly. She told the staff my father had left – I don’t think any of them believed her, but they were so thankful to be free of him that they didn’t ask questions. Hylla and I lived like that for a while. She was technically heir to the throne, not that we paid much attention. People were too afraid to come to us for anything, so the kingdom was pretty much self-governed. We taught each other how to fight, to avoid being caught off guard again. But eventually Hylla had enough of our huge, haunted castle. She wanted to leave. So we hugged goodbye and she set off to see the world we had been barred from. I stayed. That made the staff suspicious – the youngest daughter, who in the span of a few months lost all of her family and became heir to the throne. Rumours started, as they are prone to do. Eventually the staff all left. I wasn’t using them. I made my own meals, took care of myself. They kept leaving until eventually I was alone in the castle.

“When those boys came, I saw them long before they saw me. I did not want to meet them as myself, but I also did not want them thinking the place was empty. So I put on that cloak and an old mask and I met them at the door with a sword in my hands. And thus I became known as the monster who killed the royal family.

“When I came across your father it was the first human contact I had for a very long time. I was lonely. The request, for the first thing he set eyes on, was just a way that meant he would have to come back, at least one more time. That’s how lonely I had become. I had gotten the idea from an old fairy tale I had liked as a child. I didn’t expect you. But you were perhaps the best thing I could have gotten. For the first time in so long I had company. I was so close to telling you the truth so many times, but my disguise had been a safety blanket that was hard to shrug off. When you asked to leave, I knew you weren’t coming back. But I couldn’t make you stay, no matter how much I wanted to. It wasn’t fair to you.

“But even the short time you spent with me had been like the sun after a lifetime of rainy days. You were my guardian angel, Annabeth.”

Annabeth found it hard to form words. Reyna’s story had been so horrid, and she was trying to comprehend how a girl only slightly older than herself could live so long completely alone.

“Why did you stay?” She finally asks. “Why didn’t you go with your sister?”

Reyna looks around at the walls that surround them. “This was my punishment. To stay in the place haunted by my father’s death at my hands.”

Annabeth makes an angry noise. “That’s hardly fair!”

Reyna looks at her calmly. “Regicide and patricide are two of the worst crimes you can commit. I did both.”

“But you had no other choice!” Annabeth’s voice is rising steadily. “Your father wasn’t sane anymore, Reyna. He got violent with you and your sister. You can hardly be blamed.”

But Reyna is shaking her head. “No, Annabeth. You don’t understand.”

“I understand that this guilt has kept you captive here, living in isolation for years. You have to forgive yourself.”

“And do what? What do I have left?”

Annabeth considers this. A lonely princess, condemning herself for a crime that couldn’t have been avoided. Rumours of a monstrous beast that scared everyone away. A large, empty castle haunted by mistakes. No way forward, no way back.

She thinks about dinners with what she had thought was a monster. Thought about the gentle way she said Annabeth’s name, even before. She thinks about reading in the library and Reyna’s soft voice, _you were my guardian angel, Annabeth._

Looking at her, Annabeth can see that despite her bravado, she is scared. Scared and alone, left without a family.

Acting on instinct, Annabeth reaches out and grabs Reyna’s hand. The princess looks down at their entwined fingers, but she doesn’t pull away.

_What do I have left?_

“Me.”


End file.
